Tractor frame and drive shaft bearing structure therein



April 9, 1946. D. B. BAKER ETAL 2,397,910

TRACTOR FRAME AND DRIVE SHAFT BEARING STRUCTURE THEREIN Filed June 26, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet l April 9, 1946'. D. B. BAKER ET AL 2,397,910

TRACTOR FRAME AND DRIVE SHAFT BEARING STRUCTURE THEREIN Filed .June 26, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 j zz/6763 025; v

' P Q) .afZ.

Patented Apr. 9, 1946 TRACTOR FRAME AND DRIVE SHAFT BEARING STRUCTURE THEREIN David B. Baker, Riverside, and William 0. Beckssignors to International Harvester Company, a corporation of New man, Chicago; 111., a

J ersey.

Application June 26, 1944'. Serial No. 542,145

a 3 Claims.

This invention has to do with a tractor frame and relates more particularly to a fabricated housing portion thereof and thealinement of bearings therein for shafting which transmits driving force to the driver wheels of the tractor.

The invention is particularly applicable to the frames of crawler tractors. These frames, because of their weight, size and irregular contour, have been fabricated from a plurality of parts instead of being formed in a single piece. These parts of the frame support contain bearings for the shafting which transmits driving force from the. engine to the traction assemblies or endless tracks. Heretofore it has been difiicult to control the assembly operations and proper care on the part of the workmen to insure that certain hearings in separate of the interconnected frame portions shall be properly alined.

The general object of this invention is the provision of an improved fabricated tractor frame structure which employs portions of separate bearing members for alining the frame portions so that the bearings themselves will be precisely alined in the completely assembled frame.

More specific and ancillary objects will become apparent and the foregoing object will be better understood upon reading the following description with reference to the two sheets of drawings annexed hereto, and wherein:

Figs. 1 and 2 are complementary views which, when assembled along the dot-dash lines at their edges, form a composite view taken on a vertical plane transversely through a rear frame portion of a crawler tractor and illustrating a preferred form of the invention. This composite view of Figs. 1 and 2 is taken substantially upon the line l2. of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic plan view of a crawler tractor of which the apparatus illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 forms a part.

To more clearly illustrate the invention, there are illustrated herein environment parts not herein claimed but shown and claimed in concurrently filed applications Serial No. 542,142, filed June 26, 1944, to William O. Bechman et al.; Serial No. 542,143, filed June 26, 1944, to Russel D. Acton; and Serial No. 542,146, filed June 26, 1944, to David B. Baker et al., to which reference is invited.

With continued reference to the drawings, a center rear portion Ill of the tractor frame II will be seen to have a center gear compartment [2 flanked on either side byclutch compartments l3. Compartment walls l4 at the .inner sides of the clutch compartments l3 separate these com- 'partments from said gear: compartment. To the outer wall IE or each. clutch compartment (one being shown)- there is attached a spacing member I6 by means of bolts 29,, of which one only is shown in Figs. 1 and 2.. A. cover member I1 is secured to the outer end of the spacing member l6 by cap screws l8 distributed circumferentially about flanges I'B and-2| respectively upon the inner end of said cover member and the outer end of the spacer member. Thus the parts- In, l6, and I! are fabricated into a rigid assembly.

The gear compartment l2 contains a bevelled ring gear 22, which is secured to a flange 23' upon a tubular member 24 by bolts 25. This tubular member is rotatably supported by roller bearin units 26 (one being shown) in the compartment walls l4. Driving force for the gear 22 is received from a pinion .21 meshed therewith and formed integrally with a tail shaft 28 extending from a change-speed transmission gearing just forwardly of the compartment l2.

There are identical arrangements of driving structure on each side of the gear compartment 12, and each of these structures is driven by a shaft 29, one of which projects to the left from an internally splined connection (not .shown) with the tubular driving member 24, and the other of said shafts projects to.the right from a similar connection withsaid tubular member. Since the arrangements on the two sides of the gear compartment l2 are. identical, only that to the right of the compartment will be hereinafter referred to. The right end of the rightmost shaft 29 is secured to the driving part of a clutch 3 l. The details of this clutch, which is a multiple plate friction clutch, are fully described in cofiled. application Serial No. 542,143, fild June 26, 1944, as well as the connection of the shaft 29 thereto. The driven part 32 of said clutch is connected by cap screws 33 to a flange 34 on a clutch-driven shaft 35 which extends into the compartment formed by the spacer member l5 and the cover member ll. Shaft 35 is carried at its left end upon the inner race of a ball-bearing unit 35, whereas a mid-section of said shaft 'is carried on the inner race of a ball-bearingunit 31, and the right end of said shaft is carried by the inner race of a. ball-bearing unit .38. When the clutch 3| is engaged, power will be transmitted from the shaft 29 to the shaft 35 thence through a gear 39, splined to the shaft 35, to a large gear 40 of which the hub 4| is carried upon roller-bearing units. 42' and 43 of which the inner races are fixed upon a tubular spar 44 having its left end anchored in an opening 45 in the spacing member I6. The hub Al of the gear 48 has tered setting of the boring or reaming tool. g wise, a common centering setting upon the oper- A transverse pivot shaft rod 48 extends'transversely across the tractor frame and through the tubular spar members 44 for the attachment of force-transmitting studs 49 to their ends at the sides of the tractor. Auniversal knuckle joint' establishes the connection between the, ends of 58. This seat 68 is made of the same diameter as the opening 59 in the left end of the spacer memberlil, and the diameter'of the outer periphery of the ball-bearing unit 35 is such that it can be pressed firmly intothe opening 59 and into the seat 68 for accurately establishing the coaxial relation of said-seat and said opening with the opening 58 and hence with the opening 51 in the inner Wall 14.

the transverse rod 48 and the side frame members.

These studs 49 have fore and aft extending channels 52 depending therefrom, and, in the present instance, these channels provide an anchorage for bearing members 53 which pivotally support the back ends of thrust beams 54 of a bull-dozer implement 55 having a blade 56 disposed forwardly of the tractor. Since the transverse rod 48 is fully described and claimed in the aforesaid filed application Serial No. 542,146, filed June 26, 1944, no'further referencethereto is herein made other than to explain that this rod serves'to absorb at its ends backward thrust applied to the bearing members 53 through the) thrust beams 54 of the bull-dozer implement 7 a The present invention relates to-the expedient herein employed of utilizing the outer races of the ball-bearing units 36, 31, and 38 in accurately alining the housing portions I5, I 6, and I? so that these bearing units will be truly coaxial with one another and' with the ball-bearing units 25 in the inner compartment Walls I4.

In the preparation of. the rightmost-compartment I3, for example, the walls, I4 and I5 are drilled with coaxial openings 5! and 58, the opening 58 being at, least as large in diameter, as the opening 57 and preferablylarger so that access through the opening 58 can be had for reaming or, otherwise forming the opening 5'I'precise1y coaxially with theopening-58 with the same cen- Likeating machine-can be employed in the forming of the opening 59 in the left end of the spacing member I6 and the bearing unit seat SI in the outer end of this member I6. The same principle is used in the formation of the opening'fiZ in the 5O merit between said walls, a driving gear compartment separated from the clutch compartment by 7 left end of the cover member I1 and theopening a 7 E3 in the right end of this member. Thus the pair of openings 51 and 58 are expediently formed truly coaxial'as are the opening 59 and the bearing unit seat I5! and the openings Bland 53. A bearing supporting plate Ellis mounted in the compartment Wall I4 where it is retained by cap screws 65. By making the circular periphery 56 of theplate. 64 of the same diameter as the opening5I in the wall I4, this convenient method is used in centering the'roller bearing unit zt with respect to the opening 51, and since these bearing units are made extremely accurately, the driving tubular member 24 journaled in the roller bearing unit 26 will be accurately centered. An accurately centered support for the shafts 29 is thereby established. In the outer wall I5 of the clutch compartment, a second bearing supporting plate 61 is fitted into-the opening 58 to thereby center a bearing'unit seat 68 with respect to the opening In a similar fashion, the openings 5! and 62 in the frame housing members I6 and I! which are of identical diameter are capable of a press fitting relation with the outer race of the bearing unit 31 to thereby aline this unit with the bearing 'units 25, 35, and 38. In efiect, the outer races of the bearing units 36 and 3 1 serve the double function of bearing races and of dowel pins and establish the exact desired alinement of the frame parts It), I5, and I! at the critical zone in which the bearings are placed. Subsequent to the cooperative functioning of the outer races of the bearing units 35 and 31 and of the frame housing portions I 5, I6, and I! in establishing the exact alinement of said bearing units with the bearing units 25 and 38, the bolts 25 and" I8 are tightened to maintain the assembly.

Having thus described a preferred embodiment with the view of illustratingthe invention, we claim:

1. 'In a tractor drive structure; a tractor frame housing including a multi-compartment casting having integral inner and outer walls, aclutch compartment between said walls, a driving gear compartment separated from the clutch compartr- I ment by said inner wall, shaft bearing openings formed coaxially in said walls, a shaft bearing unit in the inner wall opening, a separate compartment casting secured onto the outer side of the, outer Wall and having axially spaced coaxial shaft bearing openings respectively adja'cently to and remote from the outer wall opening and formed within integral walls of such casting,- a shaft bearing unit in said remote'opening', 'and a shaft bearing unit mutually in' said outer-wall opening and the opening adjacent thereto to insure axial alinement of all of said bearing units.

2. In a tractor drive structure; a tractor frame housing including a multi-compartment casting having inner and outer walls, a clutch compartthereto, said spacer member having axially alined shaft bearing seats in its end portions, a cover member having integral inner and outer end por tions and secured in end, to end relation with the spacer member and with'the inner end portion of the cover member contiguously to the outer end portion .of said spacer member, said cover member having axially alined shaft bearing seats in its end portions, shaftbearing units insaid inner Wall opening and in the outer endseat of the cover member, and additional shaft bearing units disposed respectively mutually in said outer wall opening and the inner end seatof thefspacer member and mutually in the outer end seat of the spacer' member and the inner end seatof the cover member to insure axial alinement of all of said bearing units. V v

3. In a tractor drive structure, a frame housing structure having a shaft bearing seat in a side thereof and a shaft bearing coaxial with and spaced axially inwardly of the housing from said seat, a housing cover member having inner and outer integral end portions and secured to said housing structure with the inner end portion contiguously to said side of the housing structure,

said cover member having a shaft bearing seat in its inner end, portion and an axially alined shaft bearing in its outer end portion, and a bearing disposed mutually in said seats to establish a co- 

